Title
Resolution Directing Staff to Temporarily Suspend the City's Footing Drain Disconnection (FDD) Program Efforts within the Glen Leven and Morehead (Lansdowne Neighborhood) Areas
Staff
Prepared by: Steven D. Powers, City Administrator
Sponsored by: Councilmember Higgins and Councilmember Teall
Body
Whereas, in August, 1998 and June, 2000, large rain events resulted in many, multiple basement backups in various parts of the City;
Whereas, In response to these basement backups City Council established the Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Study Task Force comprised of homeowners, city staff and experts to investigate the causes and bring a recommendation to resolve the basement flooding to City Council;
Whereas, The Sanitary Sewer Overflow Study Task Force identified five priority areas across the city;
Whereas, The Sanitary Sewer Overflow Study Task Force held community meetings across the city to receive public input and direction on various solutions and;
Whereas, Based on community direction the Sanitary Sewer Overflow Study Task Force recommended that a comprehensive city-wide footing drain program be implemented;
Whereas, On August 6, 2001, City Council passed an ordinance to implement a comprehensive City-wide footing drain disconnection (FDD) program to eliminate or reduce instances of surcharged sanitary sewers and SSOs;
Whereas, The current program focus priority area of Glen Leven and Lansdowne has encountered unique, historical creek bed patterns and overland storm water drainage issues, which have impacted the implementation of the FDD program; and
Whereas, The communication between this area and the city needs improvement;
RESOLVED, That City staff is directed to temporarily suspend the City's Footing Drain Disconnection Program efforts within the Glen Leven and Morehead (Lansdowne Neighborhood) areas for the following action items to occur:
· Analyze and/or address existing issues in the local stormwater system to improve stormwater drainage/conveyance and address the existing surface flooding that residents are experiencing in this area
· Clarify the methods and consequences of opting -out of the program
RESOLVED, That during the temporary suspension, City staff are directed engage the necessary consulting firms to review and adjust certain aspects of the Footing Drain Program detailed below;
· Consider other means for achieving removal of footing drain flows from the sanitary sewers (recognizing that it is essential to remove these flows)
· Review the technical issues related to the equipment quality and configuration associated with the Footing Drain Disconnect program
· Investigate subsidizing the cost of equipment associated with improving homeowner confidence in the level of protection afforded by the program
· Provide more review and analysis on the air gap feature provided for the sump pumps
· Conduct a robust survey of Footing Drain Disconnect participants that would yield statistically significant data on homeowner satisfaction and program efficacy;
RESOLVED, That a meeting be scheduled for this area on October 11 at 7:00 p.m. at Lawton Elementary School to continue with discussion on aspects of the Footing Drain Disconnect program and neighborhood stormwater issues;
RESOLVED, That a weekly posting will be made to the city's Footing Drain Disconnect website;
RESOLVED, Staff be directed to continue the Developer Mitigation Program; and
RESOLVED, Staff be directed to allow and continue facilitating citizen initiated footing drain disconnection efforts.
As Amended by Ann Arbor City Council on September 17, 2012